Outdoors: Fur market is making big comeback

Friday

Feb 15, 2013 at 6:00 AM

Mark Blazis Outdoors

After more than two decades of hard times, draconian restrictions and low prices, Massachusetts trappers are seeing signs of a rising fur market.

High fashion for the rich never totally abandoned luxurious fur. But this year, many of the world’s most trendy designers, who previously avoided incorporating furs in their fashions, are boldly featuring them.

Vogue, perennially the barometer of fur popularity, proclaims, “Fur is this season’s instant glamour hit, and nothing will keep you warmer.” While Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton and Ralph Lauren add fur collars to their men’s coats, Fendi, Gianfranco Ferre, Chanel, Hakaan, Antonio Berardi and Roberta Cavalli are all showing off their fur designs to a resurgent women’s market.

Demand is also rising in Russia, China and Korea — key cold-country buyers. There, furs are both a necessity and an affectation, since nothing stops bitter, penetrating winter winds better — or proclaims status more emphatically. Demand is also increasing in Japan, Greece and Italy, although the interest there is more fashion-oriented.

The Fur Harvesters Auction at North Bay, Ontario, traditionally sets the market when it launches North America’s fur-buying season. Business was brisk on Jan. 9, energized mostly by deep-pocketed Chinese buyers. Their burgeoning economy has created a nouveau riche class hungry for luxuries. It’s dominating and driving the hot market. Buyer attendance was the highest ever.

Although fur garments are expensive, fur prices for trappers are hardly enriching, considering the time and effort expended. Raw pelt values vary considerably. Small, damaged and improperly skinned pelts or pelts harvested before their prime are nearly worthless. The coldest regions produce the most valuable, luxurious furs, so New England seldom gets top prices for its furs.

Eastern beaver pelts, for example, averaged $33.92 at North Bay, while western beaver averaged $41.39. Top pelts commanded $72.

Wild mink averaged $22.15, reaching a top of $37. While beaver and mink got most of the attention, other furs sold briskly, as well. Muskrats averaged $11.51, and the best brought $19. Eastern raccoon averaged $18.20, peaking at $40.

Eastern coyote averaged $25.68, with top furs bringing $54. The overabundant coyotes in New England are considered a highly under-utilized resource.

Otter, as usual, with the highest density and durability of all furs, commanded high prices, averaging $86.34 and topping out at $105. Fisher, maybe our most beautiful and luxurious fur and looking a bit like sable, averaged $97.97, with the best selling for $130. Eastern red fox, always attractive with its warmth, color, and light weight, averaged $60.95, peaking at $102, while gray fox, perennially less desirable, averaged $35.90, peaking at $45.

Weasels, skunk and opossum — much out of favor in the fashion world now — went mainly unsold.

No trappers will get rich from the new fur demand. For them, trapping is a great outdoor tradition, challenging them to learn nature’s secrets for the privilege of hands-on contact with beautiful and valuable renewable resources, which otherwise would be wasted to natural mortality, which is always brutal.

Big, sophisticated cities with affluent populations almost all have prominent fur shops, but there is only one for all of Worcester County — Furs by Michael at 500 Pleasant St. in Worcester. Owner Edward Jellson has noted a significant rise in local fur sales, buoyed in part by a cold winter. But attitudinal changes also play a role.

Local women, according to Jellson, are eagerly buying casual-looking sheared beaver and mink, both of which are lightweight, warm and soft as velvet. Classic designs never go out of fashion, though. At the Worcester Art Museum Flora in Winter gala, I noted several women with mink coats, one with particularly beautiful red fox trim.

Since furs cared for properly can last generations and look just like new, many women are wearing vintage coats, some proudly handed down from their mothers. It’s often hard to tell the difference. That durability makes fur a good buy over the long run.

Ellie Horwitz, retired chief of information and education at MassWildlife, recently showed me her luxurious fisher coat, which she had made from pelts given to her by local trappers. It’s the most beautiful fur coat I’ve ever seen from local furs.

I contacted USA FOXX and found it makes fisher jackets, requiring 12-13 male fisher pelts or 16-18 female fisher pelts. It would cost $650 for the labor to make a jacket from tanned pelts that someone provides. If you’re not a trapper or can’t get pelts from a trapper, you can buy pelts from USA FOXX for $120 each. Every year, USA FOXX makes a fisher jacket for Miss New Hampshire from pelts sent in by the New Hampshire Trappers Association.

Times change and furs are definitely rising in popularity because of their comfort, beauty and inherent “I-am-successful” statement. For many, the sensual nature of soft fur combines sophistication with provocative animal sexiness. Adding to fur’s increasing popularity, though, is a measurable change in public attitudes — indicating some people are tired of being told what’s politically correct for their wardrobe.

Many animal rights activists — some of whom would take away our leather belts, bags and shoes if they could — will aggressively fight this resurgence in fur popularity. Wildlife biologists who manage our natural resources, however, say these protesters don’t understand trapping or the lives of wildlife. With the new trapping laws, ethical equipment and mandated trapper education, wildlife biologists support harvesting valuable furbearers that otherwise would be wasted, dying much more brutally from natural tooth-and-claw forces or diseases.

Today — Worcester County League of Sportsmen’s Clubs meeting at the Southboro Rod & Gun Club.